Teleportation

Teleporting people through space, as is done in Star Trek, is impossible by the laws of physics. Teleporting information is another matter, however, thanks to the extraordinary world of quantum mechanics. Researchers at TU Delft’s Kavli Institute of Nanoscience have succeeded in deterministically transferring the information contained in a quantum bit – the quantum analogue of a classical bit – to a different quantum bit 3 metres away, without the information having travelled through the intervening space: teleportation. The results are published online inScience, on Thursday 29 May.

Beam me up data!

Below you can find relevant articles, an image gallery and video gallery. Please click on the image or link to get more information. The material may be used free of royalties for purposes of news items when adding ‘Image: Hanson lab@TUDelft’.

Image Gallery

(left) This image shows one of the two chips used in the teleportation experiment. The diamond can be seen wired up exactly in the centre of the image. (right) Zoom in of the diamond chip: under each dome there is a small register of quantum bits.

A forest of optical elements to guide single photons from- and laser beams to each diamond.

This image shows the experimental bright setup used to teleport the state of a spin between two distant diamonds. The diamonds are hosted in two low-temperature microscopes, that can be seen on the far corners of the table.

This image shows the experimental dark setup used to teleport the state of a spin between two distant diamonds. The diamonds are hosted in two low-temperature microscopes, that can be seen on the far corners of the table.

This image is an electron microscope picture of one of the two devices, with a fictitious teleportation beam added. The image is about 40 micrometer wide in reality.

This image is an electron microscope picture of one of the two devices, with a fictitious teleportation beam added. The image is about 40 micrometer wide in reality.

Videos

This animation shows schematically how to teleport the state of a spin between two distant locations.

In the short video below, Ronald Hanson explains several aspects of quantum teleportation, including a description of the experiment and the consequences of the expected results (at the time of filming the teleportation experiment was not yet performed).English version, Dutch version

Two years ago we made a short movie to explain part of our experiment for a general audience, to compete in the FOM short movie challenge. We were one of three prize-winners! You can see our submission below: